Package: lintian Version: 2.104.0 Severity: wishlist Nilesh Patra discovered a recurring error pattern affecting cross builds of Debian packages. People tend to confuse DEB_BUILD_* variables with DEB_HOST_* variables. In debian/rules, this is difficult to detect reliably as there are legitimate uses of the DEB_BUILD_* variables. However, there is one category of such uses that can be reliably detected. Since dh-exec and later debhelper compatibility level >= 13, a number of debian/ files support expansion of these variables. Using DEB_BUILD_MULTIARCH is never correct in debian/*.install files nor is it correct in debian/*.links files. Examples:
https://sources.debian.org/src/cubature/1.0.3+ds-3/debian/libcubature0.install/#L2 -> Nilesh fixed this in -4. https://sources.debian.org/src/mozc/2.26.4220.100+dfsg-2/debian/uim-mozc.install/#L2 Given that people get the distinction of build/host/target wrong and the adoption of higher compat levels, it seems likely that more of these will be introduced lateron. A use of this variable should result in a lintian error. DEB_HOST_MULTIARCH should be used instead of DEB_BUILD_MULTIARCH. I do not expect false positives. I'm Ccing Jelmer as this tag would be automatically fixable by lintian-brush. Helmut
